Vs England game 1

[Philip_Smith007]

I'll just leave this here for the dedicated.
2 late night with sick children got me needing beauty sleep.
So have hit the record button.

Should be a cracker of a game after the Aussie performance and how will SJ respond to media talk.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Kiwi halves option taking was absolutely woeful most of the game

Best summed up 2 mins before HT, ran a shortside on our last around halfway, got in trouble and put in a stupid chip kick and gifted England the ball around halfway instead of off their own line, and they scored a try on the back of that, although we all know that penalty try was absolute rubbish. Shaun’s last play summed it up as well, dance around on the same blade of grass for 10 seconds before putting in a grubber that was zero chance of getting a result instead of taking the tackle for a final play

 

[Philip_Smith007]

First try off a great bomb that Rapana didn’t collect and offloads with support gets dirty old Sam Tomkins a try. The most amazing part is ref called it no video ref.
6-0

JWH has been very aggressive in defense, getting away with plenty of niggle.

Nikorima has a swing and a miss on a grubber kick.

Kiwis penalised for??? Inside the 10???

England held Bromwich to long.

Ref loves to blow the whistle twice.

Great try, Nikorima drift across, JWH angle run across play, SJ drew attention and threw a great inside pass to Masters who goes through massive hole.
6-6

Wow, young Pom offloads thinking he was being dragging into goal. Rapana looks to have knock ball out of hand on video ref replay after ref calls try.

JWH final penalised in defense.

DWZ gets pinned in goal off a good kick. Niggle after it gets ref talking to captains.

Love this ref, doesn’t take shit and letting some niggle go.

England scrappy end to a set, Maumalo (or should I say Moomarlow) penalised for turn and McGilroy went down.
DWZ penalised for extra work in tackle, tactical I think to set the line.

England fell asleep on the offload near the line.

England penalised inside the 10m

JFH knocks on playing ball 5m out.
England return the favour un next set at play the ball on their 25m.

Nikorima gets on outside of his man and draws Tomkins leaving a gap for DWZ to fly through and score.
6-12

Master takes Lomax high, and sells it, glass chin? HIA to follow.

DWZ slides in with his knees in front of player, SJ does a great job keeping ball up. Called a penalty try due to knees. Hmmmmmm. Only Billy Slater can do it.
12-12
Halftime.

Manu penalised for to long in tackle, causing scrappy play the ball.

Maulmalo knocks on a England pass inside our 10m

England inside the 10m after a poor end to a set on our line.

SJ ends a penalty selling interference in play the ball, taking the 2 points in front of post.
12-14

To aggressive and to long in tackle to let England out of their end with a penalty.

Whitehead lost the ball, it SJ penalised for something. Rough call, Poms take the 2.
14-14

England knock on in tackle. Ball came away from grip and toughed Ah Mau forearm.

Nikorima loses ball attacking the line.
Maulmalo kick on the last results in England accident offside. We taking the 2 again.
14-16

Need tries.

Smith back on at hooker much better than Bromwich.

SJ called for a forward pass to J Bromwich near the line.

England score a great try from an offload, 3 defenders all over Bateman? No one tied up the ball, DWZ can't take Gildart 1 on 1.
Unconverted 18-16 12mins left.

WTF, Burgess loses ball in tackle but ref calls tackle complete before ball lost. Never seen that call before.

Wow, ball never went out and let England get it. Luckily it went wrong for England.

SJ caught in ruck and penalised, old mate Tomkins push him down into it. Poms getting the calls this half.

England lose ball in playing ball with 6mins to go.

Smith penalised for tackling Lomax in the air.

Loose ball by England called play on as it goes backwards.

Touchie misses Bateman knock on a SJ grubber.

 

[playdaball]

Looking back who were the stand out players for the Kiwis?No one for me really stands out.

 

[¿N. ig-mah¿]

Id say that game has Johnson's value falling.

Had the potential for a good game for him. Great inside ball for the try. Brilliant effort to hold up the player ingoal, but unfortunate to have it ruled a penalty try. It could have been a match winner

But his performance will be remembered for the dying moments. To look totally lost with the ball in hand and enough time for another tackle, he stutters on the spot looking like a lost child in a crowd. No clue what to do. He should have either taken the tackle, or passed it for someone else to take a tackle and set for something on the last tackle with the clock about to run out. At the very least, bomb it into the ingoal for a contested catch. But instead he grubbers into heavy traffic with no support players, and hands the ball over early.

That wont get him a million dollar contract. A $1m player takes those moments and makes them legendary.

 

[Matua]

Looking back who were the stand out players for the Kiwis?No one for me really stands out.

Bromwich, he just eats metres.

But, due to the way the game was reffed it is nearly impossible to judge some players. Johnson is taking some shit, but he was really good in the first half (and I'm not an uber fan, I'm more likely to call him princess than most on here). The game is hard to process because it was so messed up.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

Looking back who were the stand out players for the Kiwis?No one for me really stands out.

Rapana stood out for wrong reasons.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

That wont get him a million dollar contract. A $1m player takes those moments and makes them legendary.

Spot on. 2015 GF, Cowboys down 4 with half a minute left on the clock, ball goes to Thurston, he realises there is nothing on for him so instead of a stupid play he swings it across to Morgan and the rest is history

 

[VillaTheGorilla]

Spot on. 2015 GF, Cowboys down 4 with half a minute left on the clock, ball goes to Thurston, he realises there is nothing on for him so instead of a stupid play he swings it across to Morgan and the rest is history

I truly believe SJ is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

If he shovels it on and then the ball is lost or doesn't come back to him he gets crucified and people say he had nothing, doesn't take the game by the scruff of the neck etc.

If there's nothing on and he's trapped, and he pulls out a shitty play, well, the knives come out.

He did a few good things in the game and a few not so good, same as most halves generally do.

 

[JJ]

I truly believe SJ is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

I

I dunno - seems that he demands to be the playmaker - but he's patchy at best at it... he's not that guy TBH, and having him and Nikorima in the halves is like the Broncos - you live and die on your forwards dominating - unfortunately Madge has little choice - Benji would have been a slightly better option imo, and of course the ghost of Keiran Foran might emerge again at some stage

I wonder whether Johnson could function in a very highly drilled system - he would have to play the COdy Walker/Cameron Munster/Luke Keary roles - not the Andrew Johns one he so covets

 

[Rich102]

He doesn't have the football brains of an Andrew Johns. Nor the desire to do "whatever it takes".